Category Archives: Percussion

Synthesizing electronics, acoustic percussion, voice, electric cello and videos into dynamic and strange aural landscapes and improvisations. Live processed video and vocals. Layering lots of different sounds. Occasional very short periods of melody and playing in Western time.

2018 Ear Spray Gigs

Saturday, February 10th Stanford Day of Noise at 10-10:30AM
24 hours of continuous live noize on the radio!! Our first time with electric cello!
Our second time playing at this event. Ann will be recording video so everyone can see how she is making her strange cello sounds using styrofoam, threaded rods, thimbles, etc.

2017 Ear Spray gigs

Ann O’Rourke – vocals and electric cello Mark Pino – cymbal The first time we played as a duo. Our electronic musician, Carlos Jennings, was on vacation. Our third time playing at the 21st Annual Norcal Noisefest. The video does not show Mark, our Entertainer, rolling on the floor with his cymbal but you can hear him. Darn!!

7-20-17 Ear Spray at Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco CA

3-3-17 Finnish Hall Berkeley CA All Tomorrow’s After Parties Benefit

We had a great time at the Finnish Hall.! Large room with domed ceiling and excellent acoustics.1 projector on the rear wall. and 2 on the ceiling. Two rear projectors had my videos. Other ceiling projector had 3 beefheart videos plus artwork images (Partial view). 3 evenings (Friday, Sat. Sun.) from 7 to 10 pm at the Finnish Kaleva Hall in Berkeley – 1970 Chestnut St. 6 Bands each evening. I did big projections on 2 ipads, each with different videos, for the first time!! Event info, including band lists, at: http://nextnow.edgebuzz.tv/

——————————————————————————–

10-10:30 AM on Saturday, February 4th 2017 at KZSU (live radio) 24-hour Day of Noise (Sorry, no videos at this event, live on the radio)

KZSU has an annual Day of Noise – 24 hours of straight of live improvised experimental / noise music. They host the event in our studios on Saturday, February 4th 2017, 0000-1159.

This used to be an annual tradition at KZSU in the 90s. We’ve had a successful revival run the last couple of years and we’re going for the 15th annual event this year. Take a look at last year’s website and our archive of last year’s performances to get an idea.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday – March 4th, 5th, 6th 2017 from 7pm to 10pm
Finn Hall (197 Chestnut street, Berkeley, Ca is the place) and
Mika Pontecorvo’s All Tomorrow’s After Parties. Semi-annual benefit. 1.5 days of bands. We used 3 projectors and two ipads with videos on the back walls and ceiling!! http://nextnow.edgebuzz.tv/

October 13, 2016. Thursday from 8pm to 10 pm. Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco. Very close to BART. 1007 Market St., San Francisco. Come and see the changes on this part of Market Street. Plus hear some great music!!

———————————————

May 19, 2016, Thursday at 9pm at the Stork Club in Oakland CA. Dive bar – lotsa fun. Mostly punk/rock/etc. They did’t throw tomatoes at us ;> http://www.storkcluboakland.com/ We had a great time. Our first time at a dive bar!!!

————————————————–

June 4; 2016, Friday at 9pm at Berkeley Arts Festival in Berkeley. 2 blocks from BART!! On University, very close to Cal campus. Mika Pontecorvo’s All Tomorrow’s After Parties. Semi-annual benefit. 2.5 days of bands. We did 3 projector videos on all the walls!! http://nextnow.edgebuzz.tv/

SEE OBAMA AND TROUTMASTER REPLICA AT MINUTE 8:55!!
NextNow’s Hardly StrictlyPersonal 2016 benefit for Earthjustice and The Coalition On
Homelessness.One more evening of Post Beefheart weirdness!! Friday, January 15, at Berkeley Arts, starting at 7pm.

This annual event’s theme is “Post-Beefheart”. In the Captain Beefheart tradition of being “out there” we made some changes – Carlos played bass and harmonica, Ann used images of The Captain’s art work mixed with her videos, and didn’t do any percussion which was very hard for her. Soon after the beginning there is about a minute that shows what her ipad video software looks like. Touchviz was developed by the same person as Touchosc, a popular midi controller. The muffled male voice in the background is The Captain, modified by Carlos.
– Carlos Jennings – bass guitar, harmonica, electronics
– Mark Pino – percussion, electronics
– Ann O’Rourke – vocals, video

May 4, 2015 at 8 PM at the Spice Monkey Restaurant near downtown Oakland, CAwww.spicemonkeyrestaurant.com .The series – Avant-Jazz & Experimental Noise Every Monday – Sponsored VAMP music art and consignment & Oakland Freedom Jazz SocietyGood parking, good food, good venue, and good food. There was a birthday party so we were quiet and they were loud. There were some kids there so I played science videos, which they loved!! Lotsa fun!!

================================================

Ann O’Rourke’s videos with other groups

Ann’s videos are live processing of video samples – 100% improvised with the live music being played!!

Recent 2015 gigs:

7-26-15 at the Lab in San Francisco at BrutalSFX. Videos for all the groups with Bill Thibeault alternating on videos.

May 23, 2015 Saturday, Ann O’Rourke is did processed video with Crows&Clouds at the festival.
NextNow presents ALL TOMORROWS AFTER-PARTIES 2015 – their third benefit festival :: this is to benefit The Homeless Action Center…MAY 22-23-24 at Berkeley Arts Festival http://www.berkeleyartsfestival.com in Berkeley CA.

January 28 & 29 2015 – Ann did the videos on Day 1 and 2 and Bill Thibeault did the 3rd and 4th days. at Second Act in San Francisco http://www.secondactsf.com for the 4-day Fog Music Festival

– Videos for all the groups at Godwaffle Noise Pancakes 3-14-15 noon- 2pm at Noisebridge Hackerspace in San Francisco for all the bands.No video recording.=======================================================================

To see videos of Ear Spray’s performances, go to www.youtube.com/annorourke12 !! All the way back to our first gig in August, 2010 at Skronkathon in Oakland, CA !! A few of them of had severe technical difficulties so we did not save the videos ;> I really miss those all-acoustic performances I used to do before I started using stuff that had to be plugged in. Drums and voice never failed to work!!

2014 Gigs
– November 16, 2014 in Pacifica CA at Fog Music Festival
– October 23, 2014 in San Francisco, CA (right side of page)

– October 5, 2014 in Sacramento, CA Norcal Noisefest
– September 17, 2014 in San Francisco, CA
– July 18, 2014 in Berkeley CA
– May 31, 2014 in Berkeley CA (right side of first page)
– January 31, 2014 in Oakland CA (right side of first page)

Type of music: “Electroacoustic Noise” seems to fit the best. Electronic and acoustic instruments plus vocals (with sound processing) and videos (with lots of processing). Occasional very short periods of melody and playing in Western time. Layering lots of different sounds at the same time. Science videos with strange processing. Galaxies and nebulas, molecules, plants, blood and cancer cells, etc. Plus lots of effects, of course!!

Ear Spray – the tinny sound that leaks out of someone else’s earphones.

Ear Spray started 10 years ago when Carlos Jennings and Ann O’Rourke met at the Luggage Store Gallery’s (San Francisco, CA) weekly avant garde/experimental music series, run by Outsound Presents, happening every Thursday for over 20 years. Mark Pino joined the group in early 2013. The more percussionists the better!!

They all know how to play as a group. No solos, no “stars”, just improvised music that is different every time they play.

All three of them played many years in “rhythm sections” in rock and jazz groups. Carlos played bass and keyboards. Ann and Mark played drumset.

Home of Fog!! Located on the Pacific Ocean, west of San Francisco, with lotsa fog. It is part of a series of Fog Music events. We played in a bar with loud sounds from the bar patrons. I love the ambience!!

Our next gig: 3 day NorCal Noisefest 2014 in Sacramento, CA
We are playing Sunday October 5 at 2:30 p.m.
See you there!!!

3 groups – Very different Electronic Noise
– Aaron Oppenheim – laptop. Not the usual drone. Very creative!
– Rubber (() Cement – Very, very funny!! Upstaged all of us with his Big costume and leading the audience outside with him down University Ave.!!
– Ear Spray – electronics, weird vocals and videos, percussion

—————————————————————-
Aaron Oppenheim, an American-Canadian Canadian-American currently based in Oakland, who improvises sounds from his laptop. His music straddles the line between noise, drone, and glitch, always emphasizing liveness and in-the-momentishness.http://www.aaronoppenheim.com

Rubber (() Cement – Realizes all tires as sentient animals covered in stamped hieroglyphs. The world is a reading surface-ribbon for any number of distributed microscopic eyes.https://www.youtube.com/wat…

We were one of the 17 groups at NextNow Festival – “All Tomorrows’ After-Parties – Jazz and Experimental Music Benefit for Homeless Action Center” (on Facebook) from noon to 11PM 5-31-14, put on by Impresario Mika Pontecorvo!! Facebook link:

This video was recorded by Charles Smith, who recorded all the groups!! If you see a white haired man holding a video camera on a tripod, that’s Charles. He records a lot of performances. Check out his other recordings at https://www.youtube.com/user/TheHermitThrush Ann first met him last year when he was recording at the 2013 Outsound New Music Summit.The 2014 Summit is July 22-27 in San Francisco. http://www.outsound.org/summit/summit